The festival of light is always used by private companies to do business. This time the Indian Railways has offered discounts on train tickets of premium trains such as Shatabdi, Rajdhani and Duronto express on the occasion of Diwali.

As per declaration of the railways, the passengers travelling in Shatabdi Express from Ranchi to Howrah will not have to pay Flexi-Fares during this off-season discount. Similarly, the passengers travelling from Ranchi to New Delhi in Rajdhani Express will not have to pay the Flexi-Fares.

The Indian railway permanently discontinued Flexi-Fares in 15 trains while providing off-season discount on the normal fares in 32 trains. “It has also reduced Flexi-Fares from 1.5 to 1.4 times the base ticket fare in 101 trains,” said a senior Railway officer.

As a gift of Diwali and aiming to increase the number of passengers, Indian Railway has also decided to provide 20 percent discount on the normal fares in 2AC, 3 AC and AC Chair cars against on the usual vacant seats, said the official.

However, the passengers, travelling in Howrah Rajdhani, Sealdah Rajdhani and Sealdah Duronto, crossing from the Dhanbad section will have to pay Flexi-Fares.“Instead of paying 1.5 percent they will have to pay only 1.4 percent Flexi-Fare..”

Briefing the off-season discount details a senior railway official said, the trains running with low occupancies, which 70 percents seats are usually got reserved will provide the discount of 20 percent on its normal fare to its passenger.

“The discount will not be valid for such trains which usually run with more than 80 percent reserved seats,” said another Railway officer.

This offer of discount on travelling tickets and reduction of Flexi-Fares is going to benefit the passengers as well as the Railways.